20 Strategies for Biodiversity Conservation
Prof. Daizy Batish
1. Learning outcomes
- Biodiversity Conservation Methods In-situ conservation
- Ex-situ conservation
- In-vitro techniques of conservation
- International Framework For Biodiversity Conservation National Framework For Biodiversity Conservation
Introduction
In previous modules we have learnt about causes and threats to biodiversity, importance of biodiversity and its loss. In this module we will study about different strategies which can be adopted for the conservation of biodiversity.
Strategies for Biodiversity Conservation
Biological diversity is the key foundation of a healthy, livable and sustainable planet but the increasing exploitation coupled with natural calamities has led to the rapid dwindling of important species. Large numbers of organisms are facing loss or extinction due to natural and anthropogenic reasons. It is estimated that 60,000 to 1,00,000 species with diverse economic uses are under threat of extinction and needs to be protected. This necessitates urgent measures to conserve the biodiversity at ecosystem, species and gene pool levels, and to enable sustained use for present and future generations. Conservation refers to the protection, preservation, management and restoration of the landscapes, ecosystems and species.
An organism can be conserved in a natural/ artificial habitat or in the form of a germplasm (bacterial cultures, animal tissues, seeds etc.) by employing various methods. A number of efforts have been put forward by various governmental and non-governmental organizations aiming for the conservation of biodiversity. It includes certain in-situ and ex-situ approaches. Emergence of in-vitro technology as an adjunct to ex-situ conservation is being viewed with great expectations for conservation of threatened species. The need of hour is to amalgamate the traditional as well as emerging technologies towards conservation of biodiversity and genetic resources for sustainable development.
The first and foremost step required in the direction of biodiversity conservation is about gathering knowledge on the existing biodiversity. It has been stated that the earth inhabits millions of plants and animal species, only a few of which have been identified so far. The taxonomists are required to identify and quantify more and more species so that closer estimates could be build up while measuring the biodiversity loss. Thereafter, appropriate plans and policies should be designed, depending on the habitats, species and conservation priorities. The last step requires the strong implementation of these conservation strategies by enforcing the laws in order to achieve the objective. Also, promoting awareness among the general public about the ongoing overexploitation and its future implications are required. It is also important for all the developed and developing countries to work in coordination, share as much information as they have about the biodiversity in their region and help each other for the realization of this goal.
BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION METHODS
a) In-situ conservation
In-situ or “on-site” conservation is the protection of organism in its natural habitat where evolutionary progression continues. The in-situ approach includes protection of a group of typical ecosystems or the regions with high biodiversity through a network of protected areas. These are the terrestrial or marine areas, exclusively meant to protect biological diversity and its allied resources. This is the most appropriate method as the species are being conserved in their natural habitats. It includes National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries, Sacred groves, and Biosphere Reserves.
i) National Parks
National Parks are protected areas under government, secluded from any kind of human interference. These are the small reserves meant for the protection of wild life and their natural habitats. Activities like grazing, forestry etc. are not permitted in these areas.
Some Major National Parks in India
1. Gir National Park, Gujrat
2. Jim Corbett National Park, Uttrakhand
3. Kaziranga National Park, Assam
4. Bandipur National park, Karnataka
5. Tudula national Park, Maharashtra
6. Kanha National Park, Madhya Pradesh
7. Manas National Park, Assam
8. Reibul Lamjao National Park, Manipur
ii) Wildlife Sanctuaries
The Wildlife Sanctuaries are bounded to conserve the wild flora and fauna. Similar to National Parks, these are also government owned areas, but limited human activities such as harvesting of timbers, collection of forest products, cultivation of lands etc. are allowed in wildlife sanctuaries as long as these do not interfere with the wild environment.
Some Wildlife Sanctuaries in India
1. Bandipur Wildlife Sanctuary, Karnataka
2. Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary, Orissa
3. Gibbbon Wildlife Sanctuary, Assam
4. Dachigam Wildlife Sanctuary, Jammu and Kashmir
5. Sunderbans Wildlife Sanctuary, West Bengal
6. Keoladeo Bird sanctuary, Rajasthan ( Now converted to National Park)
7. Periyar Wildlife Samctuary, Kerela
8. Mundanthurai Wildlife Sanctuary, Tamil Nadu
iii) Sacred Groves
Sacred groves are the forest fragments of varying sizes, which are communally protected and usually have a significant religious importance. Economic activities like hunting, timber production etc. are strictly prohibited in these areas. Sacred groves do not enjoy protection via federal legislation in India but are protected by locals and associated NGO’s. For example Scrub Forest in Thar Desert of Rajasthan maintained by Bishnois community and Sacred Hindu Grove near Chandod on the banks of Nerbudda worshiped by local communities. Largest sacred grove in India is Hariyali, near Ganchar in Chamoli district in Uttrakhand. According to an estimate there are nearly 14000 to 1, 00,000 sacred groves all over India.
Picture of a sacred Groove
Biosphere Reserves
Biosphere Reserves, on the other hand are a special category of protected areas of land, where people are an integral component of the system. A biosphere reserve consists of a core, buffer and transition zones. The natural or core zone represents an undisturbed or least disturbed area of representative ecosystem. The buffer zone surrounds the core zone, and is managed for research, education and training activities. The transition zone is an area of active cooperation between reserve management and the local people. Its goal is to facilitate the conservation of biodiversity, foster sustainable economic and human development and to provide support for research, monitoring, education and information. Nine of the 18 Biosphere Reserves in India are included in UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Program list.
List of Biosphere Reserves in India
1. Nilgiri, Western Ghats (1986)
2. Nandadevi, Uttrakhand (1988)
3. Nokrek, Meghalaya (1988)
4. Gulf of Mannar, Tamil Nadu (1989)
5. Sunderbans, West Bengal (1989)
6. Manas, Assam (1989)
7. Great Nicobar, Andaman and Nikobar Islands (1989)
8. Simlipal, Odisha (1994)
9. Dibru-Saikhowa, Assam (1997)
10. Dehang-Dibang, Arunachal Pradesh (1998)
11. Panchmarhi, Madhya Pradesh (1999)
12. Khangchendzonga, Sikkim (2000)
13. Agasthyamalai, Western Ghats (2001)
14. Achanakamar-Amarkantak, Madhya Pradesh (2005)
15. Kuchchh, Gujrat (2008)
16. Cold desert, Himachal Pradesh (2009)
17. Seshachalam, Andhra Pradesh (2010)
18. Panna, Madhya Pradesh (2011)
Protected area network in India
| Protected area | Status |
| National parks | 103 |
| Wildlife sanctuaries | 543 |
| Biosphere reserves | 18 |
| Community reserves | 45 |
| Conservation reserves | 73 |
Total protected area: 1, 62,024.69 km² (4.93% of total geographical area) (Source: www.wiienvis.nic.in [July, 2017])
b) Ex-situ conservation
Ex-situ or “off site” conservation refers to the protection of elements of biodiversity outside their natural habitats. In this case, there is a cessation of evolutionary progression, but the desired genes would be preserved. This conservation strategy plays an important role in recovering the endangered species. It is particularly useful in the field of agriculture as the domesticated plants which cannot survive in nature unaided, can be preserved using various ex-situ techniques.
It includes
1.Zoological gardens where the animals are confined in enclosures, displayed to public for educational and recreational motives and may even bred for conservation purposes
2.Botanical gardens has a collection of wide range of plants grown outside natural habitat in some artificially provided conditions and are meant for conservation, research and education.
3.Arboreta are the botanical gardens specialized in trees.
4.Nurseries are a place where plants are propagated to a usable size, usually up to the seedling stage, generally meant for ornamental purposes.
5.Field gene banks are useful for conserving plant genotypes (generally vegetatively propagated) as live plants that undergo continuous growth and require continuous maintenance. These provide an easy access to plant genetic resources but are expensive to maintain, require more labor, inputs and space and have higher levels of risk from natural disasters and attacks from pests and pathogens. 42,000 varieties of rice are conserved in Central Rice Research Institute in Orissa.
6.Captive breeding of animals with possible reintroduction into the wild.
7.Artificial propagation of plants
8.In-vitro techniques include the laboratory practices used for the conservation of plant/ animal and microbial diversity through its storage in germplasm banks, propagation via tissue culture methods, preservation using the technique of cryopreservation, conversion into artificial seeds, maintenance as slow growth cultures, and long term perpetuation as DNA clones.
c) In-vitro techniques
i) Germplasm banks
Germplasm banks or biobanks provide controlled storage facilities of temperature, humidity etc. for the material to be conserved. These are variously called as seed banks, gene banks, DNA banks etc. depending on the material that is conserved in them. They are generally used for the storage of seeds, sperm and ova. The germplasm banks save large variety of plants & animals in a very small space and at the same time ensure the authenticity of scientific identity of the conserved material. It also insures the responsible use of the material, equitable benefit sharing by all parties, and international networking with other in-vitro banks, thereby facilitating the exchange of knowledge/ material.
Material conserved in germplasm banks are of 3 types:
- Base collection: Samples which is kept for long term and is not to be used as a routine distribution source.
- Active collection: Samples maintained for medium term viability (about 30 years)which are available when required.
- Working collection: Samples which are easily accessible to be used by breeders or researchers for various experiments and crop improvement programmes.
ii) Seed banks
In case of plant species, seeds are a convenient means of long term storage of genetic diversity, as the samples are small in size, easy to handle, require low maintenance and frequently remain viable for long periods. In seed banks, material in the form of seeds are stored at nearly -10 to -20°C, often using silica gel in the seed containers to reduce humidity. In general, conditions of low temperature and desiccation allow seeds to maintain viability, in many cases indefinitely. Further, the method provides ease of storage, economy of space, low labor demands, maintenance of large samples and cost related advantages. Thus, storage of material in the form of seeds is one of the most widespread and valuable ex-situ approaches to conservation.
However, they are found to be ineffective for recalcitrant seeds (seeds which get killed or become unviable over a period of time when exposed to drying and freezing conditions), plants which reproduce by vegetative means and materials modified by genetic engineering which are generally unstable.
Famous Seed Bank projects
Millennium Seed Bank Project, associated with royal botanical garden, Kew. In October, 2009 it has reached its 10% goal of banking the entire world’s wild plant species. Its 47 plant organizations in 17 countries intend to store 25% of world’s plant species by 2020.
Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened on February 26, 2008 near Norway, 600 miles from North Pole. It is designed to hold 4.5 billion batches of seeds of world’s main crops. On March, 2013 the number of samples has increased to 7, 70,000.
National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), New Delhi, India has over 3.43 lakh samples of 2.47 lakh varieties of various species which include around 28,000 accessions of wild relatives of various crops.
iii) Tissue culture
Tissue culture is an in-vitro technique, based on the concept of “totipotency” of plant cells. Cellular totipotency is the capability of a cell to give rise to a whole new plant. Mature cells undergo dedifferentiation to become meristematic and then undergo redifferentiation to form a whole new organism. Tissue culture methods are increasingly being employed for storing valuable threatened species. This is because it offers the unique opportunities of storing several valuable species in a comparatively small space under secure and pathogen free environment, with relative ease of multiplication. Germplasm available in the form of microbial cultures, cells or organs in case of animal species and seeds, cuttings or vegetative propagules in case of plants is used for micropropagation.
However, this proves to be uneconomical in terms of labor and physical resources and time consuming as well. Also, it may have constraints such as somaclonal variations or loss of morphogenetic potential in some cases.
Plants conserved by tissue culture
Mature trees of Ulmus americana, which survived the epidemics of Dutch elm disease and are potential sources of disease resistance, are conserved using mature leaf as an explant by tissue culture techniques (Shukla et al., 2012).
Leptadenia reticulata (Jeewanti), a medicinally important endangered woody climber, is preserved using leaf as explant (Patel et al. Jan, 2014a).
Caralluma edulis, an endangered and endemic edible plant species of the Thar Desert, is tissue cultured using nodal segments as explant (Patel et al., 2014b).
Orchis lanata, native to South Europe and endangered in Kashmir and Kumaon regions of India is conserved by callus formation (Shreshta and Joshi, 1992).
Gentiana kurroo, a medicinally important plant, endemic to Kashmir and Himalayas is cultured using axillary shoots in order to conserve it in-vitro (Sharma et al., 1993).
iv) Cryopreservation
Cryopreservation or freeze preservation is a technique of preservation of germplasm at ultra low temperature of -196°C i.e. the temperature of liquid nitrogen. The principle underlying cryopreservation involves bringing the culture to a state of non-dividing and zero metabolism, so that any biological activity, is effectively stopped. Cryopreservation also helps in storing tissues of animal origin such as cultured animal cells, spermatozoa, ovarian or embryonic tissues and whole embryos for livestock breeding programmes. Freeze preservation of microbes, algae, insects and other organisms can also be done which can possibly be used in future for biotechnological researches.
v) Artificial seeds
Somatic embryos are cultured in vitro through embryogenesis and can be preserved as artificial or synthetic seeds by coating with gels like sodium alginate, calcium alginate, and polyacralamide gel etc. which prevent them from desiccating. These somatic embryos are then dehydrated to a suitable level and subjected to slow growth or cryopreservation in a manner similar to zygotic seeds. Production of sodium alginate beads by encapsulation of shoot tips and nodal segments of medicinally important plant Mentha arvensis helps in its in-vitro regeneration and conservation (Islam and Bari, 2014).
vi) DNA clones
DNA, the basic unit of heredity of a cell, can effectively be used for conservation of threatened plant species. Germplasm can be stored in the form of DNA segments cloned into a suitable vector such as cosmids, plasmids and bacteriophage. With the recent progress in the field of molecular biology such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR), combined with gene cloning, small amounts of tissues can provide substantial collections of all the DNA of a plant genome.
Currently extracted or preserved DNA cannot be used to regenerate whole organism, but any chosen gene can be isolated for use in genetic engineering. Its preservation can be used for conservation of valuable genes or DNA segments from threatened species.
INTERNATIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION
The World Heritage Convention
Since its beginning in 1972, this convention has been responsible for the preservation of cultural properties with 190 parties under it. It enhances public knowledge, awareness and appreciation for the heritage sites.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) (now called as World Conservation Union (WCU)
It was founded in 1948 in order to bring governmental/ non-governmental agencies around the world together to conserve biodiversity and natural resources and promote their sustainable use at local, national and international levels. 81 countries all over the world are its members and the headquarters of the organization are located in Gland, Switzerland.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)
The Convention was signed in Washington DC in March, 1973, basically to put ban on the overexploitation and international trade of wild fauna and flora. Currently 178 parties are there under CITES and nearly 30,000 species are protected by this convention
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
The convention came into force on 29 December, 1993 with objective of conserving the biodiversity, sustainable use of biodiversity and fair and equitable share of benefits arising by the use of natural resources. 193 countries have adopted this convention including India
International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA)
International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources, popularly known as International Seed Treaty is a comprehensive international agreement in harmony with the Convention on Biological Diversity, which aims at guaranteeing food security through the conservation, exchange and sustainable use of the world’s plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, as well as the fair and equitable benefit sharing arising from its use.
Ramsar Convention on wetlands of International Importance
It is an international collaboration of 168 parties covering 21431 wetlands of international importance. It was initiated in 1971 for the conservation of wetlands, mangrove and coral reefs.
The Convention on Migratory Species (CMS)
Also known as Bonn Convention, it is an international treaty aiming to conserve terrestrial, aquatic and avian migratory species.
NATIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION
State and Union government of India has developed a number of Wildlife Acts for the enforcement of conservation strategies
1. Madras Wild Elephant Preservation Act, 1873
2. All India Elephant Preservation Act, 1879
3. The Wild Birds and Animals Protection act, 1912
4. Bengal Rhinoceros Preservation Act, 1932
5. Assam Rhinoceros Preservation Act, 1954
6. Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (amended in 1983, 1986 and 1991)
7. Forest Conservation Act, 1980 (amended in1988)
8. The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986
9. The Biodiversity Act, 2002 (implemented in 2004)
10. The National Environmental Policy, 2006
Apart from that, Individual projects for the conservation of endangered species. For example Project Tiger was launched in 1973 and tiger reserves were formed to promote their conservation. Similar projects on crocodiles (1954), lion (1952) and elephants (1991-1992) have also been undertaken.
The Indian Board of Wildlife (IBWL) is the main advisory body of Govt. of India, constituted in 1952 (reconstituted in 1991 under the chairmanship of Prime Minister) and it ensures the conservation of species diversity in the country, establishment of protected areas, sustainable use of ecological services, and control of unethical activities that could harm the biodiversity.
Other non-governmental organizations such as World Wide Fund for Nature, Wildlife Preservation Society of India, Dehradun and Bombay Natural History Society etc. also help in management and conservation of natural flora and fauna.
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REFERENCES
- Islam, M. S., & Bari, M. A. (2014). In vitro regeneration protocol for artificial seed production in an important medicinal plant Mentha arvensis L. Journal of Bio-Science, 20, 99-108.
- Patel, A. K., Agarwal, T., Phulwaria, M., Kataria, V., & Shekhawat, N. S. (2014a). An efficient in vitro plant regeneration system from leaf of mature plant of Leptadenia reticulata (Jeewanti): a life giving endangered woody climber. Industrial crops and products, 52, 499-505.
- Patel, A. K., Phulwaria, M., Rai, M. K., Gupta, A. K., Shekhawat, S., & Shekhawat, N. S. (2014b). In vitro propagation and ex vitro rooting of Caralluma edulis (Edgew.) Benth. & Hook. f.: an endemic and endangered edible plant species of the Thar Desert. Scientia Horticulturae, 165, 175-180.
- Sharma, N., Chandel, K. P. S., & Paul, A. (1993). In vitro propagation of Gentiana kurroo— an indigenous threatened plant of medicinal importance. Plant cell, tissue and organ culture, 34, 307-309.
- Shrestha, J. N., & Joshi, S. D. (1992). Tissue culture techniques for medicinal important herbs Orchis incarnata and Swertia chirata. Banko Janakari, 3, 24-26.
- Shukla, M. R., Jones, A. M. P., Sullivan, J. A., Liu, C., Gosling, S., & Saxena, P. K. (2012). In vitro conservation of American elm (Ulmus americana): potential role of auxin metabolism in sustained plant proliferation. Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 42(4), 686-697.